Happy Birthday to me!

Last week was my birthday. It wasn’t a hugely significant one, but it was one *one of* the last of my 20-something years.

I’m not going to write about life and time creeping up on me and all the things I haven’t yet achieved because that’s not going to be cheerful to read at all.

Instead I’m going to spend the rest of this page being smug and pleased with myself for how good my birthday was and how excellent my friends are for all the effort they put into making my day special.

For many years now, I have held joint birthday parties with a close friend who is also a February-baby. If you’ve never held a joint party before, I can highly recommend it. Halves the stress, doubles the chances that people will show. 2011 we celebrated at Alloneword, 2012 we partied at Limes. This year we have decided to get all our friends together at Alfred and Constance. That’s not for a few weeks, but organising it seemed to take up all my birthday-planning-bother. So until last weekend I was doing nothing and had no plans for my actual birth-day.

Fortunately a good friend rode in and took charge and so come Sunday night I was chauffeured to a super-secret location (my friends’ house) for a dinner with friends.

I didn't drive...

For a few years I did not enjoy my birthday. Or rather, I preferred quiet birthdays that centred around eating rather than socialising. I still don’t like the pressure of organising a birthday party by myself. Now, however, I am quite happy to pass over the reins of organisation and lap up the loving care and attention of not cooking one micron of a delicious three course meal, being plied with Mumm and Shiraz and getting to dictate my dessert of choice. Berry Clafoulis for anyone curious. Any dessert that involved berries or stone fruit is an instant favourite. Except Summer pudding, which is just red soggy bread. Serious, so unnecessary.

No birthday cake as such so I blew out candles stuck into toblerone.

 Meringues with mint-chocolate, fresh berries and cream.

 Cutting my 'cake' and a pile of delicious desserts.

 Monday morning I walked out to this on my kitchen bench;

...which is a pretty great way to start the day. Especially when you have two slices of it for breakfast. 

The rest of the day was silly gifts – including Pixar DVDs and magic bubbles – lunch at the pub, chocolates and flowers. In other words, just what a birthday should be about.

This was the first time in years I worked on my birthday. It’s sort of a personal rule to not work but rather spend the day doing all your favourite things. In 2009 I took the day off, ate raspberry tarts, drank champagne, went to see a musical and fed squirrels. That was a good birthday. However I absolutely had to go to work yesterday. Fortunately, my work colleagues made the day worthwhile and I felt very special.

 Beautiful flowers, a birthday gift form my boss.

Rounded off the day with the traditional family celebration dinner.

As with just about every situation in life, it’s the people around you that make all the difference.

A big thank you to all of my friends and family who went to so much trouble to make sure I had an excellent birthday. 

Today is World Nutella Day

You had no idea there was such a thing, did you? 

Really though, if you’re going to celebrate a product, why not Nutella? Nutella is delicious. I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t like Nutella. And if you do indeed not like Nutella, I don’t want to know you. Go away. 

 Happy Nutella Day!

Nutella almost deserves a Day for its international popularity. A staple of breakfasts all over Continental Europe, it is as popular if not as ubiquitous in America and Australia. The product was developed by Italian chocolatier Ferrero in 1944 but released onto the market as ‘Nutella’ in 1963. Not unsurprisingly, it was instantly popular. For me, Nutella is so reminiscent of Europe. Going on family holidays in Europe, I got so excited by the little packet of Nutella sitting by my plate every morning. Who am I kidding, I get pretty excited about that now.

Nutella Marshmallow French Toast. Image courtesy of Go Cook Yourself.

Nutella crepes. Image courtesy of Real Mom Kitchen.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Nutella pretended to be healthy. The goodness of milk and nuts, the energy-beneficial chocolate, all of that toss. With ads full of happy smiling kids, you had to believe it. Let’s be honest though, it’s not healthy. Not even vaguely. But no one cares. Except for the people who sued Nutella for incorrect advertising. It is delicious, glorious, nutty chocolaty spread goodness and I can’t keep it in the house because I Will Eat It.

Nowadays adverts tap into the morning ritual or Nutella as delicious everyday indulgence. Or this great one from 1996 that is artisan and family and breakfast all rolled into one 

Nutella is delicious in any pastry or sweet like situation. In cakes, on toast, on crepes, in cookies, on ice cream, on bananas, surrounding strawberries, on danishes, in croissants. The way I usually eat it? Out of the jar. Using a tiny, tiny spoon because then I can ‘eat’ more without actually consuming more. Yes, I have a method for eating Nutella out of the jar. So judge me.

Several months ago I made Nutella-stuffed browned butter and sea salt cookies. They were incredible. Here is the recipe. 

Just one of the dozens of Nutella recipes you can find online. So do yourself a favour and look through some of the recipes below and when you're nice and drooling, pop to the shops, buy yourself a jar and celebrate this wonderful breakfast spread.

My favourite food blog, Smitten Kitchen have a list of Nutella-inspired recipes.

Joy the Baker also has a selection of recipes.

The best Nutella crepe recipe (apparently).

Nutella fudge brownies.

2-minute Nutella mug cake.

Mango and Nutella crepes. Image courtesy of Closet Cooking.

Sydney and the Excellent Weekend! (Pt 2)

Monday

Garry. Or possibly Muriel. (Photo from www.xray-mag.com)

Mondays are always so much better when you don't have to go to work. Our Monday in Sydney was sort of cloudy and grey, and when we went outside it was hella windy. We walked through the city down King Street, to Darling Harbour again  because our plan for the morning was to go to the Sydney Sealife Aquarium - another tradition for these trips. Last time we came down, we named the dugongs, and so this time we wanted to check in on Garry and Muriel.

Sentimental attachments to zoo animals aside, the aquarium is a super-interesting place to visit. (Avoid the weekend crowds if you can, though, seriously.) The displays seem well set up and pretty well cared for, and I'm a fan of those underwater walkways they do. It's always so cool when a huge sting ray swims right over your head, you know? And the fish themselves are kind of awesome; I always come out wanting to watch Finding Nemo, cause damn that movie is accurate.

We took another ride on the ferry afterwards, back around to Circular Quay. We were headed in the direction of Jamie's Italian, which is just off Martin Place and the Sydney installment of the Jamie Oliver cooking empire. They don't take reservations, so we fronted up for lunch at around 12.15 and waited in the bar for a table.

I'm not totally sure what I was expecting, but honestly, the overall experience was pretty top notch. It might be a chain restaurant, but it didn't really feel like one. The venue and decor were pretty nice, and seemed well-considered. The drinks were great; there were some lovely Italian wines on the menu. The food was delicious, too, and I know the fresh-twist-on-classic-dishes is a thing he does, but it works really well in this case. The service was really good, too. It seemed like they put a lot of effort in, but they pulled it off without seeming like they were trying too hard or taking themselves too seriously. Plus, reasonably priced. Two thumbs up from me!

Following lunch, we rode our post-food mellow back into the city and wandered around for some more shopping. Sadly, we visited Kinokuniya again, and I may have bought one more thing... (Considering I bought about twelve items on one previous visit, three total still seems tame.) We did a bit of Christmas shopping, and a bit of looking at beautiful things we could never afford to buy. (Jo Malone cologne is delicious, and anyone who wants to buy me something expensive should come talk.)

Over this trip, we'd been for a couple of walks in Hyde Park, and it's honestly one of my favourite things to do in Sydney. You can go and sit on the grass, or get a bench in the avenue under the fig trees. It's a great place to sit and have a chat, or listen to the buskers. We happened to sit near a couple of young guys playing Christmas Carols on a pair of what looked like tiny tubas. (Possibly euphoniums? Or alto horns?*)

For dinner, we met up with a buddy of ours, and went to the Nippon Club, which was amazing! It's very unassuming-looking - the decor's not unlike an RSL - but it's got Japanese beer on tap, lots of kinds of sake, and delicious Japanese food including an in-house sushi chef, who makes THE BEST fresh sushi. Delicious!

Tuesday

Our friend from dinner Monday night (and Saturday's basement bar crawl, incidentally) offered to get us in to the Francis Bacon exhibit at the Gallery of NSW for free, which we were naturally pretty excited about, so on Tuesday morning we walked into the Domain to take in some art.

The exhibit was excellent. It was a retrospective of his work, containing pieces arranged according to decade - the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s, as well as source material from his workshop and a documentary about the exhibit. What I liked about the arrangement was that it let you see how Bacon had developed as an artist, and how the themes and imagery he used evolved over time. In the descriptions and blurbs, there were also tantalising tidbits about his life, and the art scene in London in the 1950s and 60s. All of it was very interesting; I'm thinking about tracking down some kind of super-gossipy autobiography or something.

(Image from tripadvisor.com)

Once we'd enjoyed the show, we headed back into the CBD for lunch. Notice how I didn't mention breakfast? We didn't have any; the plan was to go to another of our favourite Sydney spots. Diethnes is a very old-school Greek restaurant on Pitt Street, away from the mall, down past Bathurst Street. It's an older restaurant, established over 50 years ago, and the food is awesome (and incredibly filling, hence the no-breakfast thing). Last time we were here, we ate Diethnes and Ichi Ban Boshi on the same day - mistaaaaake.

After a delicious lunch, we wrapped up our trip with some more shopping and last-minute Christmas-gift-hunting. We went for another walk in Hyde Park, then headed back to the hotel to pack before the gig we were going to**.

Thus tragically ended our Sydney holiday! We took the train to the airport at ass o'clock the next morning, and were back in Brisvegas by around 10.30am. (I went straight to work, it was awful.) Overall verdict was that it was totally worth it, though. An early-December mini-break is a great way to relax in advance of the Christmas season, especially if you can go somewhere low-key, and enjoy yourself with lots of good food and good shopping.*** Merry Christmas, folks!


*I tried to work out what these instruments were, but I'm really not sure. Meanwhile, how hilarious are sousaphones?

**Alexisonfire, on their Farewell Tour, at the Hordern Pavillion. Too excellent to write about.

***I guess other people like to exercise or do things on their holidays or something? I don't know. For me, walking places and drinking beer and eating things equals good times, what can I say?

Melbourne and the Very Big Meals

Ah, Melbourne. So many things to so many people. For my father, for his birthday, it's all about the food. And the wine. And sometimes the art. But mostly the food. So, for a very significant milestone birthday, he decided nothing could be better than a trip during which we would eat. A lot. We arrived late on Thursday night, freeing up the whole of Friday, Saturday and Sunday for outings, galleries, restaurants and cafes.

Friday Breakfast - Cumulus

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This well-known Melbourne Cafe is set in the front of the same building as Arc One Gallery, and features a large, open room with a bar on one side and cafe counter on the other. The coffee is super-strong, and the ham and cheese toasted sandwich is actually Kurabouta leg ham and gruyere. The clientele include your classic inner-city Melbourne foodies, trendier yuppies, and business people getting a coffee injection before work. Even so, the food is pretty delish, and I could definitely get addicted to the strong, bitter coffee...


Friday Lunch - TarraWarra Estate Winery

TarraWarra Estate is about an hour outside of Melbourne, in the Yarra Valley, in very pretty, classically rural countryside. The main building is on a hillside, and at first the ultra-modernity of the building seems incongruous, especially above the pond-weeping willow combination just below it on the hill. But when you actually get into the complex, it's easier to see how the building has been designed for outlook, to showcase the view of the landscape, rather than to present a visual image on the hill. Not that the building itself isn't striking, but it seemed to me that it was designed more for the people inside it.

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We arrived at around 11.30am - slightly too early for lunch - so we had a wine-tasting first, with a very helpful and friendly sommelier. Of course, none of us could agree on which wine we liked the best, so it was probably for the best that we were able to order flights and wine by the glass when we had lunch. (A flight is three glasses, of about 50mLs of wine each. This lets you have a taste of various wines, matched to your three course meal, without overdoing it.) (Honestly, though, we had a flight each and then another glass, so I think we might have been missing the point...)

TarraWarra Estate also includes a privately funded art gallery, which we visited after our meal. It was showing an exhibition called Sonic Spheres, which had key themes of music and sound, and featured contemporary artists including Eugene Carchesio, Ross Manning, Marco Fusinato, John Nixon, Sandra Selig and more.

Friday Dinner - The Press Club

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Do I even really need to say anything, here? This famous bar and restaurant is in the city, on Flinders Street, just up from the back of Federation Square. The fit-out is beautiful, the food is amazing. I doubt I could say anything that hasn't already been said; the food was excellent, and the wine delicious. The modern gastronomy - infusions, jellies and foams all over the place - isn't something I prefer to eat, and my asparagus entree wasn't really to my taste, but even that part of the experience was interesting. I had the chicken for main course, and it more than made up for it, with a delicious collection of flavours and perfectly cooked meat.

The restaurant also has a wine list with about forty pages, which comes in a binder. The Press Club offers wine from across the world - Greek, French, Italian, Australian... Our poor sommelier had to put up with a lot, however, as my father is fairly picky and wanted to discuss the dinner bottle in depth. He also had to try not to look horrified when I wanted red wine first, regardless of whether or not it matched my food (we'd had a lot of white wine at lunch, and the last thing I wanted was yet another glass!), so I'm pretty sure I got written off as a total heathen right around then. But after the meal he provided us with a complimentary shot of Skinos Mastiha liquer, which has quite an amazing taste and was a delicious finish to the meal, so perhaps he didn't dislike us too much.

Saturday Lunch - Gypsey and Musquito

This is a small cafe down on Bridge Road in Richmond, and was an excellent place for lunch. It has mismatched, rustic furniture, a slight bush/outback theme to the menu, great-looking muffins and cakes on retro cake stands, and again, super-strong coffee. The food was delicious - I had something called a box, which was essentially a square-shaped pie without a lid. There was a steak and potato version, but mine was organic chicken and corn, and it was absolutely delicious. It came with broccoli, avocado and green bean salad. The clientele ranged from people picking up coffees, to hipster kids with piercings, to an old lady reading a book at the table next to us. I was a little jealous of her, as it would have been a great place to sit and drink coffee and read something for a while.

Saturday Dinner - Cutler & Co. Dining Room

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Cutler & Co is on Gertrude Street in Fitzroy, close to the city but just outside. The front is very unassuming, with big windows and a small logo painted on one door, to let you know you're in the right place. Once inside, though, the beautiful design and fit-out of the restaurant is immediately obvious, with a variety of dining spaces, intriguing lighting, and an impressive glass wine cellar. The staff were professional and accommodating - including the sommelier, who had slightly more success with my father than the poor guy at the Press Club - and the restaurant experience was great before we even tasted the food.

And the food, honestly, is amazing. I had an entree of peas, broad beans, sunflower seeds, onion and

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bergamot, which does nothing to describe the small, adorable collection of ingredients I received, which the waiter proceeded to dress with an onion reduction. My main was chicken again; a slow-roasted chicken breast with pancetta, braised turnips and onion, and we also had roast potatoes with garlic dressing. I managed to make room for dessert, which is always worth it when there's a chocolate ice cream sandwich with vanilla parfait and salted caramel sauce on the menu.

From the helpful yet unobtrusive service to the delicious food, the whole meal with Cutler & Co was
absolutely worth it, and made it clear the place deserves every accolade it receives. (Incidentally, it's owned by the same folks that run Cumulus.)

Sunday Lunch - The Hellenic Republic

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By Sunday, my personal desire for another big meal was flagging considerably, but I braced myself - and didn't eat breakfast - in preparation for a classic Sunday lunch with the extended family, in final celebration of my father's birthday. And I was glad I did - the food here is fantastic. It's owned by the same folks who run the Press Club, but the Hellenic Republic is far less gastronomie, far more family-style shared food. It's down at the far end of Lygon Street, for starters, miles away from the Italian section near the city. The restaurant is in a white-painted low building with lots of windows, and overall the atmosphere is casual and relaxed. It also has an open kitchen like the Press Club does, so you can see the rotisseries of grilled meat, and occasionally get a waft of barbecue smoke.

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We ordered one of the banquets - because too much is never enough, apparently - and were inundated with food. We had grilled meat, fish, prawns, pita, taramasalata, tyri saganaki, lahano salata, delicious Cypriot Grain Salad, and a lot more. It was all excellent, and was topped off with a dessert of Hellenic Mess - broken meringue, orange blossom jelly, vanilla crema and strawberry ouzo sauce - and watermelon, feta and mint salad. I had also decided, by that point in the weekend, that I was totally sick of white wine, so I drank a beer and had some Greek red. I didn't regret it!


So, our weekend of meals was finally over. And you know, while I really enjoy having the occasional gastronomically-fabulous meal, it's not something I prefer to do on the regular, and for me, this many huge eats in one weekend was a bit of a stretch. Which is not a complaint! More a lament that we can't all live in Melbourne, so as to go to these amazing restaurants with a bit more space between visits. I suppose some of us just have to eat too much, then spend the plane ride back to Brisvegas digesting. Which I did. I did not require dinner on the plane at all. Or breakfast on Monday, come to that...

Brisbane on a Sunday

Sundays fall under one of two categories;

1. Sundays when you do nothing but recover from the week/end, drink coffee then beer on the couch and watch television.
2. Sundays when you get out and have lazy social time with friends.

Neither is better, each is wonderful in its own way. Personally, I find when I spend Sunday afternoon out, it distracts me from thinking about the impending work week. Oddly though, I can feel guilty when I’m out enjoying myself on a Sunday rather than staying at home ‘resting up’. Find the logic in that.

Anyway, I’ve had a great couple of Brisbane Sundays recently.

Last Sunday I paid my first visit to the Eagle Farm markets. Now that I’m a north-sider these are my new local fresh food markets and being a lover of markets in all forms, I couldn't put off my first visit for long. So I dragged myself out of bed on a cloudy and windy Sunday to get to the markets and pick up weekly necessities like baby roma toms and smoked bacon. 

When I arrived, the cheap-skate in me grumbled a lot about entry into the markets costing Twice As Much for Eagle Farm than Rocklea ($2 rather than $1. $2!). So cheap sometimes.

Eagle Farm is significantly smaller than either the Rocklea or West End markets. However, many of the stall holders are the same and there is one of just about everything. 

 

I had lovely chats with Black Sheep Coffee Guy, Jus Oils Couple, the Bacon Ladies and Egg Man. I'm a chatty person. The two separate food stall sections were giving off the most wonderful aromas of baked and fried breakfasts, but I got seduced by a mars bar muffin, which I took home to enjoy with my freshly ground Black Sheep Coffee. Good espresso puts me in an expansive mood.

This Sunday I tripped into the CBD to check out Suitcase Rummage. This ingenious idea for a market has been happening in Brisbane for a few years now. Held on the first Sunday of every month, it is an opportunity for people to ‘sell like their Grandmas’. You take along suitcases full of stuff you no longer want, lay it out and wait for someone to decide your trash is their treasure.

The now misnomer’d September project: Two Trees, West End

The long weekend just past was a big weekend for me. Sunday was a friend’s wedding for which I was a bridesmaid and the other two days drifted passed in a haze of tiredness and packing for an upcoming move. The weekend felt longer than the four days and I knew getting back into work-mode was going to be tough.

So I took myself out for coffee.

Two Trees is a tiny yet adorable café tucked in beside The Happy Cabin clothing store. The décor is the complete fake-garden setting with plastic grass, tables and chairs likely sourced from antique centres and friend’s back gardens, blackboards and hanging plants.

There was only one other person in attendance when I grabbed my coffee this morning, but it was early on the first day after a long weekend. I suspect everyone in the city but me was moving at a slow luxurious pace.

 

The barista was very nice and just the right amount of cheerful. She obviously has regulars who wander in for their daily cup and chat. My soy latte was the perfect strength, rich and tasty with just enough of a kick to get me started. Sitting at my garden table reading the weekend paper – old comic books were also on offer – in the cool morning air, just shielded from Vulture Street traffic, it was a wonderful way to start the morning and I would head back there anytime.

Small soy latte that wasn’t small: $3.50. I have no idea if 50c was added for soy milk.

Setting: charming.

Reading material: news or superheroes

Breakfast menu: untested but looked pretty good, and the serve-yourself toast topping bar is a great idea.

Parking: easy early in the morning, more challenging later in the day. 

September project day 8ish: The Burrow

Stepping into The Burrow, the first thing I noticed was how good the place smelt. Of pizza and breakfast and fresh fruit and every good thing. I wasn’t even particularly hungry at the time but I immediately wanted to sit down and scoff something. 

I hadn’t tried The Burrow before now because they don’t open until 8:30am Monday – Thursday, which is was past my coffee-on-the-way-to-work time and because parking on Mollison street is damn hard to get. Turns out, they have parking behind the café! No excuse not to go for lunchtime pizza. Which I will do. Soon. Because the pizza menu for $10 a pizza looked scrumptious!

I got two take away coffees. The barista suggested that if I hadn’t tasted their coffee as yet I should have the house blend rather than the single-source Guatemalan that they had in stock. The latte was good, not very hot, and strong. Packed a real punch.   

Aside from that, the baristas were both nice, it was a relaxing place to be and it looked like it had comfortable regular clientele who like the place enough to go often and stay long. Always a good sign.

Regular soy latte: $3.80, that’s with 30c extra for soy

Smell: delectable

Parking: yes!

Inside décor: indie-café but nifty and nice and with lots of seats

Caffeine hit: much needed

September project day 2: Blackstar Coffee West End

Day 2 I actually make it to a West End coffee shop.

Blackstar Coffee is a favourite spot amongst many of my colleagues who rhapsodise about the quality of the quality of the coffee.

Been meaning to go for ages, finally made it this morning. But first off, an observation; today was the first day of the new season I got into my car mid-morning and immediately started to sweat. You know when your car turns into an oven? It has happened.

Back to the coffee. Blackstar roast their own coffee. It's there on the shelves, in nifty paper bags all ready for you to buy. They make their own cold-pressed coffee that sells as iced coffee in creamy, black and soy. I might have got really excited about this and vow to return to try it one day.

(Later note - I did try the iced coffee when it got warmer and it was AMAZING!)

I got three coffees, one for myself, two for my colleagues. We all three thought it was simply delicious and would go back any time.

Blackstar products on display.

Excuse the ordinariness of the photo, I feel like a fool taking photos of shops and such.

The guys behind the machine seemed nice enough, though I didn't chat like I usually do. The place is breezy with lots of chairs and the menu is good and affordable. They do a tasty looking breakfast menu I'd be keen to sample one morning.

Coffee: smooth and mellow
Sit and chill factor: 7
Coffee roasting: divine
Parking: could be a pain in the butt
Regular soy latte: $3.80 (no extra charge for soy!!)

Pastry, hot or continental?

I love breakfast. I love second breakfast even more. For the uninitiated, that’s the breakfast you have when you got out of bed, had a light breakfast, did some jobs, maybe went back to bed for a while, then got up and had breakfast all over again. BUT – and this is important – still at a totally normal breakfast hour. Otherwise it’s just a strange morning tea or brunch.

Like a lot of people, my average breakfast is totally-standard, easy to make, easy to eat before I got to work every morning.

However, in a more time-and-money rich world I would start every morning with a bit more of a pick me up then organic museli. I suspect many people are the same – we enjoy a bit of a special breakfast away from our toast and vegemite. Think of how much everyone loves brunch! But what would be your breakfast of choice?

What is your favourite breakfast type? Pastry, hot or continental?

I love a big proper continental breakfast. They’re the sort my family would have every single weekend morning as I was growing up and it was a chance for us all to sit down and eat lazily together before going to various sporting fixtures, visits to grandparents, grocery shopping etc. It’s a lovely, drawn-out way to enjoy the start of the day.

Hot breakfasts are perfect on the right day but can be very heavy. A full plate of pancakes and bacon may make me belly-happy but it also tends to send me to sleep. I worked in a coffee shop in London for 6 months and there were regularly who came in and had a full fry up every single morning. I don’t know how they or their arteries coped with such a slog of food at 8am.

If I had to choose a breakfast-type to have every day, I would choose pastry. Even more than continental breakfasts I love a day that starts with a pretzel. Or a truly delicious (sweet) muffin. Even this morning, having realised I’d run out of organic yoghurt for my organic muesli, I went and got a Danish pastry. It really set me up for the day.

Are you a big breakfast eater? If you could choose a type of breakfast to have every day, what would it be? Crispy bacon, hash browns and mushrooms? Muffins, brioche and butter? Or Rolls, salami, cheese and fruit?

 One of the best breakfasts I've ever had - a 'Turkish' breakfast at a Turkish cafe in Wein.

Hide & Seek Brisbane - part 1

There is a series of books on Australian cities entitled 'Hide & Seek Brisbane / Melbourne / Syndey etc. For Christmas I was given Hide & Seek Melbourne because I love the place and Melbourne maybe more then other cities in Australia is full of crazily cool bars, stores and hidey-holes that you can only go to after you've discovered where they are hidden.

When at a friends house a few months ago, she had the Brisbane version sitting on her coffee table. Looking at it, I was quite surprised at some of the places that were included. It is a personal opinion book, complied by local contributors and I got to thinking – if I were to create a Hide & Seek Brisbane, what would I include? Well, these are the places I'd recommend.

Part 1

Feeling peckish?

Flamingo Café – Tucked away in Winn Lane, one of Brisbane's few lanes (certainly after the Council's cancellation of its Laneways Project), Flamingo Cafe is full of character. Full of kitchy furniture and waitresses with attitude, the food is delicious and affordable.

Anise – Anise is only for a special evening out, but if you're going to go to town on a meal, this is the place to do it. A tiny, hole in the wall restaurant, Anise sits only 13 people around a bar, making for an intimate and convivial atmosphere. They are known for their degustation menus, which they change every season as well as having 'specials' – game, seafood, French-themed specials. It costs $90 for a 'standard' seasonal 7-course degustation, $130 for the seven courses with wine. If anyone were thinking of going, I would say go the whole hog with the wine. It is worth it, for the matched wines served by the owner – who really cares about the wine and the food you're eating and wants you to enjoy and appreciate it to the fullest.

Mizu – A Japanese restaurant with a bistro feel in Tenneriffe. Their menu is one of those wonderful constructions where you look at it and know you can't go wrong. Everything is fresh and creative without being over the top. There is also a wonderful lunch menu with a great sushi and bento box selection. Even the most basic Mizu Bento Box – a bargain at $16 – is my favourite work-lunch treat. Other great Japanese in Brisbane are Bishamon and Edamame.

Sassafras – A long-time favourite breakfast café in Paddington. Hard to get a table if you haven't booked but worth planning ahead for the ricotta hotcakes, chilli corn cakes and scrumptious bacon. The back terrace is also perfect for enjoying beautiful Brisbane weekend mornings.

Piaf - A French Bistro in all the correct meanings of the word. Tucked into a tiny space in Little Stanley Street, what I love so many things about Piaf. I love the short but perfectly formed menu that regularly changes to that every time I go it is new and interesting. I love the selection of French wines and how many of them you can get by the glass. I love the petite serving sizes of the courses - and the corresponding petite prices. I love that a couple can go to Piaf, have a three course meal (be able to fit in a three course meal) with a glass of wine each for around $100. It's the cheapest a special-night-out can be.